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The wonderful portable digital dictionary on my computer describes the word ‘Retrograde’ as

Retrograde[re-truh-greyd] adjective, can be used in several contexts:

(astronomy) moving from east to west on the celestial sphere; or–for planets–around the sun in a direction opposite to that of the Earth

Of amnesia; affecting time immediately preceding trauma

Going from better to worse

Moving or directed or tending in a backward direction or contrary to a previous direction

Going by the preview images, I’d say it contains elements from all of these and more!

My dear readers, I feel extremely pleased to introduce you to the upcoming 2-part Graphic Novel by our very own fellow addict, Akshay Dhar.

Retrograde is being published by Pop Culture Publishing, who are also the good people behind Comic Con Express – Mumbai, which is taking place on 22nd and 23rd October in Mumbai! I’ll be there, will you?

A great reason for you to be there will be to get your hands on the first issue of Retrograde. It is being launched at Comic Con Express – Mumbai, on Day One. I wouldn’t want to miss out on this one. Retrograde along with the next issue of Ravanayan are on my personal top ‘must-haves’ list for this season.

We have the first five pages of Retrograde for your viewing pleasure. They are more of a teaser, if you ask me, coz the point at which the preview ends is nail-biting and gripping enough to keep me excited until the 22nd of October!

It is a story set in a post-apocalyptic world where only a handful of individuals are left, fighting for survival and a chance to live their lives again, as few men (and women, of course).

In essence, the first thing that came to my mind was the comparison between other classic post-apocalyptic graphics novels, like Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra or The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman. If you ask me, anything that brings comparisons of this caliber to mind has a promising future ahead, and I am confident that Retrograde will continue to carry the torch and set a standard which will be a new benchmark in the Indian Comic Industry.

Akshay is not a new name in the comic industry. He has worked on several projects like the Comix.India anthology, Warblade, WereHouse v1, etc. He is also a regular contributor and one of the core members of ComicAddicts. His love and knowledge about Comic Books is at par with the other Addict, Mayank, who was the M behind the Adventures of M and the one-man army behind Comic Addicts.

Akshay collaborated with Avik Kumar Maitra to create Retrograde.

I will let you good readers make up your own minds about the book, on the basis of these preview pages. In my opinion, the whole trip from Delhi to Mumbai will be worth it only for the chance to pick up a copy of this one. The story begins well, without much buildup. The reasons behind the near-destruction of the Earth are not explained, but perhaps will be detailed later in the story.

The characters are interesting and jump right into the action, without a formal introduction or a back story. Who needs a back story when your survival is an issue, eh?

The artwork looks very promising and black & white is a medium which has always been close to my heart so I might be a little biased towards it, but in the tradition of several other artists, they have decided to go ahead without any colors. I’m sure some of you might have complains about the B&W medium, but from these pages, it seems to me that it will go well with the story.

It is probably one of India’s first, if not the first, series/story which is based on such a theme. I am not considering Rabhas Incident by Level 10 at par, because that deals with primarily the destruction of a single city. Retrograde takes it a long, long step further and destroys the planet!

In the tradition of Akshay’s favorite writers like Warren Ellis, Jonathan Hickman, Neil Gaiman etc. Retrograde looks finger-licking promising to me, and the next 5 days are going to be tough on me if I don’t succeed in diverting my mind to other useless activities to keep it off from the goodies in store during the coming weekend!

So here you go folks! A few early images to whet your appetite for what’s yet to come!

Now the question comes why only this? There are a couple of reasons for choosing TIYCS as the first one to read, but the main point which led me to start this heavy 178 pages comic is that it is a collection of different short stories.

Almost immediately my interest was captured when I saw familiar faces talking to each other in the initial pages of the comic – Jatin Verma, Pran, Adhiraj Singh and the man himself- Sumit Kumar. The next interesting thing to me was the language used : a mixture of hindi and English : Hinglish! This comic is an easy read and even easier to connect with because of the way it is written. It would seem as if you are listening to a close friend talking .

This story narrates the life of Sumit Kumar as he takes the reader through his eventful life, which more often than not are quite funny!. The issue I faced was that I could only relate to select few incidents as I am yet to come out of school and this book talks about college and adult life too.But it was nice reading about what I’ll go through in a few years. I just hope my experiences are less humorous and more mundane!

Now onto the story,the roller coaster life of Sumit is as interesting as girls find Justin Bieber. I liked the story, I liked the narration and I liked the CRAPPY yet suitable artwork. The BEST-EST-EST thing about the book is the title, and the connected end of the story (before future predictions; Page 118-125). I have so many personal favourites in this book, that I can write another book on it. I am trying to avoid spoilers here so that you can go out and buy the book yourself to read and relish. Suffice to say it’s a slice in life humorous take on Sumit’s life, and I am sure you would find glimpses of your own life as you read through Sumit’s. Some incidents will make you cringe, some would make you feel sheepish and some would make you laugh out loud!

I read it in 4 hours in one night flat and laughed my ass out. Dude, those 4 hours spent with coke and this comic were awesome. I had my 9th finals a few days after, so I wasn’t able to dissect it properly, but now I can speak about it on Comic Addicts!

After the enormous amount of praise for the story, let me come to the art. Although the art suited the story, but I expected more out of 350 bucks as the art is very very basic, somewhat cartoonish in not a good way. I am not deriding the art as it suited the story just fine, but just pointing out that if I pay 350 bucks for a comic book, i expect better art. If it had been 100 less, you’ll see TIYCS as popular as Wimpy Kid. I mean it is, but people prefer borrowing it rather than buying it.

Now for a special guest appearance, I have a little review from a friend, who is into comics, but not a comic addict like me-Arnav Singh.I loaned him this book and he came back with this:

Hello there! Last week I reviewed Sufi Comics, a religious comic with illustrated teachings from the Holy Qur’an. And as promised, this week, it’s completely DESI!BTW Thank you people for 52 likes on the previous post, and continue the same 😛

This week on my Notepad is Uud Bilaw Manus, or UBIMA in short.

Art: Abhijeet KiniScript: Adhiraj Singh

From the i-don’t-know-what-he-ate mind of Adhiraj Singh, badly drawn comics returns! but with a slight difference this time, thanks to Abhijeet Kini that it’s not badly drawn now 🙂

From the Tinkle fame, you know Abhijeet Kini’s artwork is amazing and awesome and attractive and astonishing and astounding and every adjective that starts with a(leaving a few exceptions though). The artwork is completely in Red and White- the artwork is appealing but for a price of Rs.100 (which I got at 70% discount. Stop calculating idiot, it’s 100- 70/100 x100)

Coming to UBIMA, he’s a superhero but not that plain old superhero wearing underwear on their costume. He’s different as he wears his Rubber Ka Kaccha only (and some bands, and a ishtylis chain but that reduces the effect). When you hear “Chillao Mat, Hum Inha Hi Khada Hoon”; you definitely know you’re not in safe hands because safe doesn’t have hands.. Get it? (Excuse the P.J., reading this comic fills my brain with crappy ideas).

On a serious note, UBIMA is fantastic and I’m looking forward to read the next issue which releases god-knows-when. Comparing the UBIMA vs OBAMA which published in Random sometime back and the one in this, there are big changes, although the story and the panel style stays same. Artwork is hell lotta better, and the “Bhojpuri” is transformed to English. Adhiraj Singh (sahab)’s mind is of course great. UBIMA is one of those comics which you want to read again and again, and still not get bored with it. SO grab you copy now via Dial-a-Book or Flipkart or wherever it’s available.